I recently told a friend to stop thinking and start testing.
He had a choice to make, and he had been making it in his head for a while.
Not because thinking is bad. Because thinking alone wasn’t deciding anything.
You know this feeling. Maybe you’re in it right now.
You ask ChatGPT a question. Then you ask Gemini the same question. Then Grok.
Now you have four or five answers, and still no decision.
Too many options freeze us
It happens when you’re starting out. It happens midway too.
New opportunities bring new options. New options bring new decisions.
And every option comes with a theory about how it will turn out.
Comfort or experience
Here’s the theory I hear most often.
On one side are people you’re comfortable working with. But they haven’t done this kind of work before. Say, the friend who mixes your live gigs, and has never mixed music for a film.
On the other side is someone who has done this work many times. But you’re not comfortable working with them. Say, a senior film mixing engineer.
Comfort feels like the right choice. Experience feels like the right choice.
Both are theories. Neither is an answer yet.
Put both to the test
Give both the same piece of real work. One song. The same brief.
See what comes back.
Then decide.
Yes, it costs you
It will cost you time. It will cost you money.
But if your career, your reputation or your next opportunity is at stake, that cost is small.
Do it with a calm, sane mind. You’re not testing the people. You’re testing your theories.
What are you still deciding in your head?
Pick the two options you keep going back and forth on.
Put them to the test.
The answer is rarely in your head. It’s in the work.
